Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko ruled out an early national election
and urged a majority coalition in parliament to decide on a new cabinet to end
the worst political crisis since deadly street protests ousted Kremlin-backed
leader Viktor Yanukovych in 2014.
“We don’t have the time because it will mean half a year of total inaction
and populism,” Poroshenko said Monday in a statement on his website. “And there
is no need, because we won’t get a better parliament. The parliamentary
coalition needs to decide on candidates for the cabinet and the head of
government as well as on the reform agenda.”
Having climbed out of recession, restructured $15 billion of debt and
signed a pact to end the armed conflict against pro-Russian separatists in
eastern Ukraine, Poroshenko’s political coalition is now splintering over
efforts to stamp out graft, which is halting billions of dollars of aid. While
Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk survived a no-confidence vote on Feb. 16, he
has to rearrange his coalition after two smaller parties quit.
Payments from a $17.5 billion International Monetary Fund loan have been
frozen since October as the country failed to meet requirements. Christine
Lagarde, the head of the Washington-based lender, on Feb. 11 said that
Ukraine’s bailout program risks failure unless the country kickstarts an
overhaul of the economy and fulfills pledges to combat corruption.
Ukrainian government bonds due 2019 rose for the first time in a week,
pushing the yield down to 10.859 percent as of 7 p.m. in Kiev from 11.798
percent on Feb. 26, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Hroisman said Monday in Brussels that a
majority of lawmakers is ready to form a new coalition and pick a new cabinet,
the Interfax-Ukraine news service reported.
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